**5. Agrotourism and challenges of cashmere production**

Breeding goats can help develop agrotourism. Many tourists like to buy real cashmere from their main production site. This can lead to the employment of the villagers and prevent migration from rural to urban areas. It is also good for governments to strengthen cashmere's industry to solve the unemployment problem. Investing in the goat production industry and cashmere production results in profitability

**97**

*New Look on an Ancient Fiber of Cashmere DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89814*

compared with other industries. Because cashmere production is consistent with sustainable agriculture, it has less environmental problems and is not polluting. The tourism industry and agrotourism and ecotourism can also be considered in contributing to the developing of cashmere industry. In producer countries, the traditional textile industry structure should be developed with the participation of livestock producers, so that livestock farmers are directly beneficiated from the cost of buying and selling of final products. Research and educational centers can support livestock production in this field or provide technical and scientific information. In the province of Kurdistan of Iran, the goat breed of "Morkhoz" is a practical example of agrotourism with presentation of local cloths from goat fibers. Morkhoz goat produces a special type of fiber that is utilized in a type traditional handmade clothing. So, all process steps from goat keeping until final cloth preparation has been made within the region. For more information see Rafat 2001. In other countries, examples of this type can also be cited. Nora Kravis (Chianti Cashmere), a veterinarian in Italy who created a flock of goats in 1970s, has become one of the most successful cashmere-producing farms, selling products of cashmere, and is now emerging as an example of successful rural entrepreneurship. In some countries of cashmere production, such as Afghanistan, they established in 2007 the first ever scouring line, Herati Cashmere. In some cashmere production regions, the model of Mohair production in France may be examined. However, despite these attractive conditions, goat keepers are increasingly abandoning their activity for higher-income jobs. The young generation is not interested in cashmere goat production. The cashmere-producing countries need to find solutions to make the profession more appealing to young people. One way would be to increase

their income significantly. The other challenges of cashmere productions are:

• Low price of cashmere from producer (e.g., 15–20 USD, spring 2012, Iran)

• Purchase fleeces without any attention to fitness, yield, staple length, color,

• How to learn the community, producers, utilizers, and students about the

• Organization for workshop, seminars, video conference, email group, etc. for

For increasing returns and to improve qualitative and quantitative characters of cashmere, cashmere producers and commercial trading partners need to complete

Another challenge is how aware the goat keepers with principal methods of animal breeding are. It needs to learn to the farmer new techniques of animal selection. They must to consider color or fleece weight in selecting of reproductive animals. Furthermore, how we can select among reproductive animals for several

• More attractive jobs in comparison with goat keeping

• Multivariate selection for genetic improvement of goats

and other quality criteria

learning more

the processing cycle.

• Ecological concerns about goat production

• Introduction of genomic selection in goats

importance of animal fibers and cashmere

## *New Look on an Ancient Fiber of Cashmere DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89814*

*Goats (Capra) - From Ancient to Modern*

Scissors are used in Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and similar countries. The resulting harvested fleece is a mixture of cashmere and hair. Combing methods (**Figure 17**) produces more pure cashmere content among harvested fibers from animal in comparison with shearing. So the harvested fibers are mostly cashmere with less hair fibers content. Farmers that use scissors to harvest fibers, they does not paying attention to quality when buying and selling. The only trait of interest is weight of fibers. But in countries that farmers use combing method, qualitative criteria are considered when selling. Cashmere goats are very sensitive to cold weather after shearing of cashmere. So decision on the suitable time for cashmere shearing is important. Sometimes we see some animals that shed their fibers very early, so goat keepers have some technics to protect their animals from

*Cover for cashmere goat to protect them after shearing in cold weather of Tabriz, Tabriz, University of Tabriz,* 

*Cashmere goat of Iran: Raeini breed. Left: Shedding of cashmere in spring. Middle and right: Cashmere goat covered by fabrics to protect animal from cold weather after natural shedding of cashmere in early winter, Baft,* 

Breeding goats can help develop agrotourism. Many tourists like to buy real cashmere from their main production site. This can lead to the employment of the villagers and prevent migration from rural to urban areas. It is also good for governments to strengthen cashmere's industry to solve the unemployment problem. Investing in the goat production industry and cashmere production results in profitability

**5. Agrotourism and challenges of cashmere production**

**96**

**Figure 19.**

**Figure 18.**

*Kerman, Iran. Rafat M.Sc. Thesis.*

*Khalat pooshan research center.*

cold weather (**Figures 17–19**).

compared with other industries. Because cashmere production is consistent with sustainable agriculture, it has less environmental problems and is not polluting.

The tourism industry and agrotourism and ecotourism can also be considered in contributing to the developing of cashmere industry. In producer countries, the traditional textile industry structure should be developed with the participation of livestock producers, so that livestock farmers are directly beneficiated from the cost of buying and selling of final products. Research and educational centers can support livestock production in this field or provide technical and scientific information. In the province of Kurdistan of Iran, the goat breed of "Morkhoz" is a practical example of agrotourism with presentation of local cloths from goat fibers. Morkhoz goat produces a special type of fiber that is utilized in a type traditional handmade clothing. So, all process steps from goat keeping until final cloth preparation has been made within the region. For more information see Rafat 2001. In other countries, examples of this type can also be cited. Nora Kravis (Chianti Cashmere), a veterinarian in Italy who created a flock of goats in 1970s, has become one of the most successful cashmere-producing farms, selling products of cashmere, and is now emerging as an example of successful rural entrepreneurship. In some countries of cashmere production, such as Afghanistan, they established in 2007 the first ever scouring line, Herati Cashmere. In some cashmere production regions, the model of Mohair production in France may be examined.

However, despite these attractive conditions, goat keepers are increasingly abandoning their activity for higher-income jobs. The young generation is not interested in cashmere goat production. The cashmere-producing countries need to find solutions to make the profession more appealing to young people. One way would be to increase their income significantly. The other challenges of cashmere productions are:


For increasing returns and to improve qualitative and quantitative characters of cashmere, cashmere producers and commercial trading partners need to complete the processing cycle.

Another challenge is how aware the goat keepers with principal methods of animal breeding are. It needs to learn to the farmer new techniques of animal selection. They must to consider color or fleece weight in selecting of reproductive animals. Furthermore, how we can select among reproductive animals for several

traits together, e.g., selection for birth weight, fertility, mature weight, resistance to diseases beside fiber traits.

Ansari-Renani et al. [10] studied improving livelihoods of small farmers and rural women through value-added processing and export of cashmere. Small producers of cashmere goats in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Iran share the problem of poor access to world fiber markets and as a result experience considerable losses of income. Many of the program activities targeting production and market constraints of the cashmere can be implicated based on following development program: Analysis of markets and farmers' access to market; improvement in goat management within households; improvement in shearing and classification of fiber; and standardization based on international quality standards.
